Winston Salem Journal: Wood right in ruling on Racial Justice Act

“Judge William Z. Wood of Forsyth Superior Court has once again ruled
correctly in allowing a Racial Justice Act case to proceed…

…Carl Stephen Moseley and Errol Duke Moses, two Forsyth County death-row
inmates, filed motions under the act. Prosecutors had asked that the motions be
dismissed, arguing that the two failed to prove that racial bias occurred in
their cases. Moseley, who is white, is on death row for the murders of two white
women — Deborah Jane Henley in Forsyth County and Dorothy Woods Johnson in
Stokes County, whose bodies were found in 1991. Moses, who is black, was
sentenced to death for the murders of two black men — Ricky Griffin in 1995 and
Jacinto Dunkley in 1996.

Assistant District Attorney David Hall contended that state law and legal
precedent required defendants to present facts proving racial bias in their own
specific case, the Journal’s Michael Hewlett reported. But Moseley’s attorney,
Paul Green, argued that the Racial Justice Act doesn’t preclude defendants from
using statistical evidence. And he said the law doesn’t require that defendants
prove racial discrimination in their specific case. Defense attorneys say
statewide statistics can be used to show a pattern of racial discrimination…

…Wood ruled earlier this year that the Racial Justice Act is constitutional. He
was right in that ruling, just as he was right in his latest ruling.”